It has long been recognized that unitary endless elastomeric tracks had the fundamental problem of becoming mostly useless upon being damaged. Indeed, once such a track is damaged, it generally has to be completely replaced by a new elastomeric track. This can be particularly difficult in some contexts such as on a battle field or in a construction zone.
To mitigate this problem while keeping the main advantages of elastomeric tracks (i.e. reduced noise, reduced weight, reduced damages on pavement, etc.), elastomeric tracks have sometimes been made of a plurality of interconnected elastomeric segments instead of being unitary.
Though elastomeric segmented tracks have their inherent advantages, such as providing the ability to replace only damaged or worn out segment or segments, segmented tracks also have their problems.
For instance, in order to connect each segment together, each segment is provided with joints. However, joints create discontinuities in the elastomeric material and in the longitudinal reinforcements (e.g. reinforcing cables or cords) where failures typically occur. Several segmented tracks have been proposed throughout the years to try to mitigate this and other problems. See for instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,338,819; 2,385,453; 2,402,042; 3,151,443; 3,212,627; 3,734,576; 5,058,963 and 7,396,091.
However, the foregoing segmented elastomeric tracks were not designed nor configured to be used on heavy tracked vehicles such as military vehicles, agricultural vehicles, construction vehicles, forestry vehicles and industrial vehicles. Heavy tracked vehicles, due to their inherent large size and weight, need to have tracks which, on the one hand, provide a large ground-contacting surface, and, on the other hand, are flexible enough to wrap around the various wheels of the vehicle (e.g. sprocket wheel, idler wheel and road wheels) and to absorb some temporary deformations.
Consequently, elastomeric tracks used on heavy track vehicles typically comprise several longitudinally extending substantially rigid sections (where inner and outer lugs are generally located) interconnected by generally shorter flexible and pliable sections (where bending generally occurs). Moreover, to maximize the ground-contacting surface of the track, the length of the flexible sections is usually significantly shorter than the length of the rigid sections.
In addition, the joint elements interconnecting the track segments need to be strong enough to support the longitudinal forces exerted by the vehicle during operation, and durable enough to prevent premature wearing. Unfortunately, prior art segmented track configurations failed to address such segmented track design considerations and are therefore of very limited use on heavier vehicles.
Hence, despite ongoing development in the field of segmented traction bands and endless tracks, there is still a need for a novel segmented track which mitigates the shortcomings of the prior art and which addresses the needs of segmented traction bands and endless tracks used particularly on heavy tracked vehicles.